Posted on March 14, 2022

Does a Slur Justify Murder?

Paul Bradford, American Greatness, March 13, 2022

Ablack man was sentenced to house arrest last week for killing an elderly white man. Corey Pujols pleaded guilty to felony battery over the incident that occurred last year at a Florida Dunkin’ Donuts. Vonelle Cook, a 77-year-old white man, got upset with the service at the store and yelled at the staff. Pujols asked Cook to leave. The white man allegedly called the black employee the n-word. Pujols asked Cook to repeat it, which the victim reportedly did. Pujols then punched Cook in the face and the man fell down and hit his head. He was taken to the hospital where he later died of his injuries.

Pujols was initially charged with aggravated manslaughter, but he took a plea deal in which he only pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of felony battery. The judge’s full sentence imposed two years of house arrest, 200 hours of community service, and an anger management course on the perpetrator. {snip}

Andrew Warren, the Hillsborough state attorney, said that the sentence “holds the defendant accountable while considering the totality of the circumstances—the aggressive approach and despicable racial slur used by the victim, along with the defendant’s age, lack of criminal record, and lack of intent to cause the victim’s death.” Warren said Florida’s Stand Your Ground law would have also helped Pujols and a jury would have been sympathetic to his story.

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The Left regularly claims the justice system disproportionately punishes blacks while whites get off easy. This is dogma among the chattering class and constantly repeated throughout the media. {snip}

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There is more leniency in the justice system toward black criminals, especially if they can offer evidence of racism by their victims.

Another black man in Florida managed to get his manslaughter charges dropped in 2017 with the n-word defense. In 2012, Joni Donley beat his math tutor, David Grant, to death during an argument where the victim allegedly said the slur. Even though Donley admitted to the murder, prosecutors eventually dropped the case over the n-word defense. “The State has no competent evidence to rebut the argument that when Donley is called a ‘n-word’, he was suddenly provoked to turn and strike Mr. Grant,” the Broward County State Attorney said in a statement.

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Black defendants sometimes don’t even need to prove the racism of their victims to get their charges thrown out. Devon Dunham was found not guilty last May for a 2017 murder in which he shot to death a 77-year-old white man. Dunham claimed the victim startled him as he approached the elderly man’s vehicle. That defense somehow convinced the jury he was not guilty.

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Dayonte Resiles was set to receive a reduced manslaughter charge in December for a brutal home invasion murder. Even though the jury was convinced Resiles viciously stabbed Jill Halliburton Su to death, they felt it was wrong to send a young black man to jail for life. Vocal jurors pushed for him to be found guilty on a lesser charge that offered the opportunity for release. This was upended by the jury forewoman, who decided at the last moment that it was wrong to give Resiles light treatment.

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